GOB Identifies Areas to Tackle in Push to Alleviate Poverty

While the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) has recently provided financing to have the Statistical Institute of Belize delve more into poverty statistics, the government of Belize says they are doing their works to alleviate poverty.  Dr Osmond Martinez of the Ministry of Economic Development says they have already identified areas to tackle.

Osmond Martinez, CEO, Ministry of Economic Development: “The first step to reduce poverty is to create employment. The second and most effective way is through education. So when you look at education for example having access to education whereby students will have access to free education, that is one. Two is accessibility and the third one is the policies that have been put in place for example there is a mandatory age group now that needs to be at school. At first it was at 14, now it’s at 16 years old. Those two years are critical and I am sure that the country will definitely receive very good dividends from that policy.”

The CDB signed the memorandum of understanding was signed on Monday, February 19.